Signs preceded soldier's death

Family wonders if Army did enough to stem what they believe was suicide

By JAMES RISEN New York Times

Published 12:00 am, Sunday, January 2, 2011

WASHINGTON -- A gentle snow fell on the funeral of Staff Sgt. David Senft at Arlington National Cemetery on Dec. 16, when his bitterly divided California family came together to say goodbye. His 5-year-old son received a flag from a grateful nation.

But that brief moment of peace could not hide the fact that for his family and friends and the soldiers who had served with him in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, too many unanswered questions remained about Senft's lonely death in a parked sport utility vehicle on an American air base in Afghanistan, and about whether the Army could have done more to prevent it.

Officially, the Army says that Senft, 27, a crew chief on a Black Hawk helicopter in the 101st Airborne Division's aviation brigade, was killed as a result of "injuries sustained in a noncombat related incident" at Kandahar Air Base on Nov. 15.

But his father, also named David Senft, an electrician from Grass Valley, Calif., who had worked in Afghanistan for a military contractor, is convinced that his son committed suicide, as are many of his friends and family members and the soldiers who served with him.

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The evidence appears overwhelming. An investigator for the Army's Criminal Investigative Division, which has been looking into the death, has told Senft's father by e-mail that his son was found dead with a single bullet hole in his head, a stolen M-4 automatic weapon in his hands and his body slumped over in the SUV, which was parked outside the air base's ammunition supply point.

By his side was his cellphone, displaying a text message with no time or date stamp, saying only, "I don't know what to say, I'm sorry." (Senft shared the e-mails from the CID investigator with The New York Times.)

With Senft, the warning signs were blaring.

The Army declared him fit for duty and ordered him to Afghanistan after he had twice attempted suicide at Fort Campbell, Ky., and after he had been sent to a mental institution near the base, the home of the 101st. After his arrival at Kandahar early in 2010 he was so troubled that the Army took away his weapon and forced him into counseling on the air base. But he was assigned a roommate who was fully armed. CID investigators have identified the M-4 with which Senft was killed as belonging to his roommate.

Ever since the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq began, suicides among American troops have been soaring, as military personnel become mentally exhausted and traumatized from repeated deployments to combat zones. In 2004, the Army reported that 67 soldiers on active duty committed suicide; by 2009 that number had jumped to 162. The Army has reported 144 suicides in 2010 through November.

It is unclear how much the Army knew of Senft's deterioration. But Col. Chris Philbrick, deputy director of the Army's health promotion and risk reduction task force, which handles suicide prevention programs, said that a medical determination of cause of death, a law enforcement review of the matter by Army investigators, and an internal review of both Senft's personnel history and the handling of his case by his chain of command were all ongoing.